Following the release of 2015's "Anhedonia," the U.K. sludge / doom band Undersmile is now calling it quits. The group comments:

"We’ve decided, as friends, that Undersmile has come to an end as of today. We’re all hugely proud of what we’ve achieved with the band. We’ve been honoured and humbled by the support we’ve received from fans of the band and the international doom community as a whole in the seven years that we’ve been together.

"With so many things going on in our lives at the moment we don’t have the time and energy necessary to move the band forward. All outstanding merch orders will be shipped this weekend, all outstanding gigs are regrettably cancelled." More...

The final bands have now been announced for this year's edition of the Bloodstock Festival, which takes place from August 7th - 10th (get ticket info and other details over here). The organizers of the festival comment:

"The ‘Metal 2 The Masses’ finals have rocked to a conclusion and some more lucky young bands are joining the New Blood stage at Catton Park next month, plus there's a few last additions for the Sophie and Jagermeister stages.

"Balls Deep bring their trad groove metal to the Sophie Lancaster stage. The Brit outfit have been busy honing their ‘Pro-Pain cut with Black Sabbath’ sound, coming on like the bastard sons of Pantera and classic heavy metal.

"Over on the Jagermeister stage, female-fronted power metallers Aceldama will be impressing allcomers with their high octane performance and audience interaction, while New Blood stage stoner rocker’s Resin will be offering an additional acoustic spin on their new material.

"Meanwhile, the New Blood stage welcomes the last clutch of winners from the last batch of M2TM roadshow finals. Goat Leaf bring their doom groove from the Sheffield heats, Oakhaart’s tech death noise hails from Gloucestershire, impressing judges at the Bristol event, Sinpathetic grace us with their death metal from the Preston night, Eradikator’s thrash metal won out in Birmingham, and lastly but not least, Cacodaemonic's unholy, neo-classical infused death metal represents Nottingham."

Undersmile is releasing a new split album with Bismuth, which features artwork by Tony Roberts. You can check out the tracks below, and the band also comments:

"Our new split with Bismuth is available to preorder from today on limited edition red/black colour vinyl, regular black vinyl and gold cassette. You can even download it from our Bandcamp page right now for the miniature price of £3."

The long awaited Doommantia Vol. 2 anthology has been released. This compilation was put together to raise money to benefit Ed Barnard, founder of Doommantia.com. After suffering with heart problems for years, Ed was hit with astronomical hospital bills which left him homeless. Due to the lack of decent healthcare in the US, Ed has now returned to his homeland of Australia to receive the care he deserves.

To help him with living expenses, 84 bands and artists from all over the world have come together once again to ease the burden left upon Ed. Just a nominal sum (with an option to pay more) gets you over 9 hours of some of the best doom, stoner, sludge, psychedelic, and drone jams out there. Stream the whole compilation and get the download details over at bandcamp. More...

Undersmile and director M. Arthur Wickson are very happy to present the music video for the song “Soil,” taken from the band’s recent split EP "Wood & Wire" released on transparent purple 12” vinyl by Shaman Recordings. Check out the clip via The Sleeping Shaman or in the player below.

The video was filmed in the spring of 2013 at various locations, but primarily in and around Shaken Oak Farm where the band recorded its half of the split with acoustic alter-egos Coma Wall. Directed and edited by M. Arthur Wickson (who also produced the band’s previous music video for “Milk”), the “Soil” video attempts to capture more of the band’s live energy – apt for a song that has recently become a staple of Undersmile's live set.

In other news, Undersmile has announced that a limited edition CD of "Wood & Wire" is to be released in June/July on Future Noise Recordings, the label which also released last year’s "Narwhal." The CD will feature an exclusive bonus track in the form of Coma Wall’s take on Undersmile’s “Big Wow,” as well as more artwork (the original concept sketches) from the talented Craig Bryant. The track listing is:

The anticipation is nearly over as today The Sleeping Shaman streams an exclusive track taken from the up and coming Coma Wall & Undersmile 12” simply entitled "Wood & Wire." The track "Summer" is taken from the Coma Wall side and can be streamed at this location.

Shaman Recordings also announced that pre-orders started today and besides the 12”, there’s the option to bundle in a T-Shirt with the "Wood & Wire" logo emblazoned on the front, more information and orders can be placed on the Shaman Recordings website right here. The track listing is as follows:

Hammerfest 2013 has just announced that along with St. Vitus, the festival line-up has just added legendary band Killing Joke. Angel Witch and a veritable who's who of metal will also be appearing at the Hammerfest 4 festival, which will take place on March 14th-16th at Haven Hafan y Môr Holiday Park, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, North Wales. Below is the current full line-up of bands appearing, with more information available over at the Hammerfest 4 website.

Shaman Recordings is proud to announce the release of "Wood and Wire," a “self-split” between Oxford’s mighty drone/doom/sludge-bringers Undersmile and the band's acoustic alter-ego Coma Wall. That’s one side of Americana-influenced, atmospheric doom-folk and one side of Undersmile’s characteristic, monolithic heaviness. Shaman Recordings also commented:

"Following on from their debut EP A Sea of Dead Snakes, the Undertaker split (w/Caretaker) and their critically acclaimed debut album Narwhal, Wood and Wire marks the bands’ first foray onto vinyl and they have produced a record that reflects their diversity as a band and hints at what’s to come, for both incarnations.

"Having played acoustic sets at the inaugural DesertFest and in support of Dylan Carlson (Earth) COMA WALL is the name Undersmile have given to their acoustic project as a way to separate the two disparate but interlinked sides of their musical personality (highlighted by Coma Wall’s acoustic take on Undersmile’s 'Cutter’s Choice'). Their contribution to this record is a taster for a future Coma Wall record.

"Wood and Wire‘s acoustic side features production work from the band’s previous producers Jimmy 'Evil' Hetherington (A Sea of Dead Snakes, Narwhal) and Umair Chaudhry (Undertaker split) while side B is produced by Justin Greaves (of Iron Monkey, Crippled Black Phoenix, Electric Wizard, Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine). Featuring three songs on either side, this is Undersmile as you’ve never heard them before.

"The incredible artwork has been created by Craig Bryant (of Bast) whose work has previously been featured on posters for the likes of Dylan Carlson, Eagle Twin, Pombagira, Lattitudes and many more.

"This slab o’wax is scheduled for release during February 2013 via Shaman Recordings and will be strictly limited to 300 copies on transparent purple vinyl with digital download card."

The first ever Doommantia compilation, "Doommantia Vol. 1," has been streaming online over at bandcamp. The anthology features over 39 bands ranging from War Injun to Bongripper, and was released to benefit Doommantia chief Ed Barnard. For those unaware, Ed has been homeless now for a couple of months but still manages to keep the Doommantia site viable online.

Ed used to have a good job until he suffered a series of two heart attacks. Those events, plus the exorbitant cost of cardial medications made paying the rent an impossibility and got him evicted from his place in Aberdeen, Washington. Now homeless, the doom and metal community has been rallying around his cause with benefit concerts and now this compilation, "Doommantia Vol. 1." All proceeds from it will help the Australian Mr. Barnard regain his self-sufficiency.

Undersmile has posted a new official video online for the song "Milk," taken from the band's debut "Narwhal," released yesterday through Future Noise Recordings. Check out the video clip below. The track listing for "Narwhal" is as follows:

Undersmile will release debut album "Narwhal" through Future Noise Recordings on May 28th 2012. The band has now teamed up with The Sleeping Shaman to stream the opening track from "Narwhal." Check out "Lockjaw" by heading over here.

The album will be released as a 4-panel digipak CD and as a digital download, with pre-orders available here. The tracklisting for "Narwhal" is as follows:

April 1st, 2012 saw the release of one of the biggest free downloadable compilations ever to be produced. This compilation is a celebration of the first year of the station Grip Of Delusion Radio, that thumbs its nose at all the conventions of what a radio station should be. The soundtrack to the rapture contains over eleven hours of music brought to you by 114 sludge, stoner and doom centric artists.

Such diverse artists as Ararat, Shroud of Despondency, Elliot's Keep and Undersmile are featured in the massive roster of bands on this three-part series. You can download and stream all three parts to it over here. The first one is the Gospel of the Chosen and the next two parts are Compil-ex Volumes One and Two. Stream the first part down below. Also, check out the programming at Grip Of Delusion radio at its website.

“As the seventh chord was strummed on the First of April, the Book was opened to a great swelling of sound!” ~ Heathenicus 69:33:16

Dutch heavy rock band Pendejo! has announced a couple of more dates will be added to the Mudfest Tour on its Facebook wall. The two new dates will feature Pendejo! and the other three artists: Cultura Tres, Banda de la Muerte and Undersmile. The dates follow below, along with an upload of Pendejo's official video for the song "Flotadores" from its debut "Cantos a la Vida."

Pendejo! is an interesting stoner rock band, since they are all from the Netherlands and decided to pick Spanish as the language they would sing in instead of English (two of the members do have Latino lineage in them, though). Their sound also infuses a horn section into it. Visit the Mudgate site for more dates and tour information. Also check out Pendejo's MySpace page to listen to songs from its first album.

Dual female fronted sludge/doom band Undersmile has announced a series of concert dates in its homeland of the U.K. as it gears up to drop its first album, "Narwahl." This will be the first full-length for the band, who already has an EP, "A Sea of Dead Snakes," and a split with Caretaker to its credit on Blindsight Records. The debut album "Narwahl" was mastered by Billy Anderson and should drop in May on Future Noise recordings. Stream some of Undersmile's songs over on the band's Facebook band page, and a video upload of "Big Wow" from its split EP with Caretaker below.

Mudgate has announced the final schedule of MudTourFest 2012 (the sludge/stoner/doom meeting) featuring Cultura Tres (Ven), Pendejo (NL), Banda de la Muerte (ARG) and Undersmile (UK). The Netherlands has the chance to experience this unique combination of South American, British and Dutch sludgy heaviness and stoner riffage on the following dates:

Details on the venues and directions can be found on the official Mudgate website.

Some more show dates following the event:

April 5th – Scruffy Murphys, Birmingham UK - Cultura Tres and Banda de la Muerte are sharing the stage with Stone Axe, Alunah, Stubb and Trippy Wicked in the International Powerhouse of DOOM! evening.Apr 8th - Cultura Tres will make its appearance on the first edition of DesertFest London.May 13th - Perron 55, Venlo, The Netherlands' Pendejo are playing a gig with Karma To Burn.

Before joining the MudTourFest, Undersmile will play a mini UK tour with Conan, Serpent Venom and Grimpen Mire on the following dates: 23rd at The Alma, Bolton; 24th at The Black Heart, Camden London and 26th at The Croft, Bristol. More...